Into the Wild

[quadriga]

McCandless, wayward soul, hopeless romantic shunning the amenities of modern life and trying to find his soul, died living out his dream -or- unprepared city boy, woefully ill prepared, selfish and didn't think about what he was putting his loved ones through, died senselessly?

[NightWatcher]

1. I rented it, but I read the book years ago

I do want to get the soundtrack

[AwakeAtLast]

2. I happen to think it was a combination of both

I read the book and had both reactions while reading it. I want to rent the movie - missed it in the theater.

[XemaSab]

3. I gotta go with both

The quote that stuck:

"Maybe the land doesn't want to be lived off of." :shrug: :(

[tigereye]

4. haven't seen the movie yet, but plan to read the book and see the movie

sounds like a fascinating (if sad) story

[Lex]

6. Eddie Vedder's soundtrack for the movie is not to be missed either

and I think it was nominated for a grammy.

If you see the film, you'll want the soundtrack I think.

[Lex]

5. Both. I think he grew up a whole lot while in that bus

and he wanted to get out of there near the end, but the raging waters of the river thwarted him.
If he'd had a map, he'd have seen a way to cross was just up-river a bit (a suspended cable crossing).

What did McCandless (the loner) learn at the end, that stuck with me, once he knew he probably wasn't coming out alive:

"Happiness is only real if shared." ~ Christopher McCandless

[quadriga]

8. Me and my friend speculated

that he intentionally left the map behind, as a map represented boundaries that society had made up.

[tool_of_the_people]

7. I finished the book last week

I get the DVD in the mail tomorrow from NetFlix.

I think that he probably wasn't as prepared as he needed to be, but still, he lived in the wild for almost 4 months with 10 pounds of rice and whatever he could forage or kill. How many people could do that?

[MrCoffee]

9. Read the book...McCandless was a complete wanker

What a fuckin' moron. How I wish I didn't even know his name.

[siligut]

10. From Wikipedia: Alaskans are rather unsympathetic as well.

Unlike Krakauer and many readers of his book, who have a largely sympathetic view of McCandless,<12> some Alaskans have negative views of both McCandless and those who romanticize his fate.<6><13> Because he had no maps, McCandless was unaware that a hand-operated tram crossed the impassible river only 6 miles from the Stampede Trail. There were also cabins stocked with emergency supplies within a few miles of the bus, although they had been vandalized and all the supplies were spoiled, possibly by McCandless himself, as detailed in Lamothe's documentary.

Alaskan Park Ranger Peter Christian wrote: “I am exposed continually to what I will call the ‘McCandless Phenomenon.’ People, nearly always young men, come to Alaska to challenge themselves against an unforgiving wilderness landscape where convenience of access and possibility of rescue are practically nonexistent <…> When you consider McCandless from my perspective, you quickly see that what he did wasn’t even particularly daring, just stupid, tragic, and inconsiderate. First off, he spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild. He arrived at the Stampede Trail without even a map of the area. If he had a good map he could have walked out of his predicament <…> Essentially, Chris McCandless committed suicide.”<14>

Judith Kleinfeld wrote in the Anchorage Daily News that “many Alaskans react with rage to his stupidity. You'd have to be a complete idiot, they say, to die of starvation in summer 20 miles off the Park's Highway.”<15>

[MrCoffee]

11. Dick Proenneke - That guy was awesome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke

[Wcross]

12. Dick had the right skills to survive- This kid didn't.

I REALLY enjoyed that PBS show on Mr. Proenneke, I found it amazing how he built that cabin, even making hinges for the door.

[MrCoffee]

13. Exactly right

The PBS show on Dick is enthralling. The book on McCandless is just tiresome.

[Lex]

14. Some are emotionally unequipped to empathize with others.

That much is clear.

[Lex]

15. It's not hard to see what kind of people McCandless was

trying to get himself away from.